Mother whose baby daughter drowned after she left her unattended in a bath jailed for three years

The family of a baby who was left to drown in the bath stormed out of court after her mother was jailed for just three years.

Jasmine Gregory was convicted of manslaughter after the court heard she drank two bottles of cider and did the washing up downstairs while her daughter, Robyn Andrews-English, was left in an adult bath in August 2014.

The 24-year-old had forgotten she had left her daughter in the bath and even went outside the house to ask passers-by if they knew where she was, the jurors heard.

She was handed a three-year sentence at Oxford Crown Court by a judge who labelled her actions as "wholly wrong and atrocious".

It was an adult bath with no support and no special seat for herJudge Ian Pringle

But one of the investigators involved in the trial said after the trial that the baby's in-laws were very upset with the leniency of the sentence, which could see Gregory freed in 18 months.

Jurors had been told that Gregory left Robyn in the bathtub despite social workers asking her not to leave her child alone hours earlier.

The mother-of-two was said to have become distracted after drinking the alcohol and started doing the washing-up, forgetting her baby was upstairs in the bath alone, an expert psychiatrist told the court. She had previously left the baby in a pram for eight hours while she drank in a public house.

Gregory ran out of her home in Grove, near Wantage, Oxfordshire and asked passers-by where her baby was before she was found holding Robyn's lifeless body, it was said.

She had repeatedly shouted she had left her daughter for "less than 10 minutes" but after the tragic events Gregory said she was "so busy" and only went downstairs briefly.

Judge Ian Pringle said it would never be known how long the young baby was left for.

"It was an adult bath with no support and no special seat for her," he said. "You then left her for how long we will never know. You left that young little girl in an adult bath unattended and she drowned."

He added: "I don't underestimate the loss that you feel and the loss you're always going to feel and I don't underestimate the loss of so many others.

"What you did on August 7, 2014, was so wholly wrong and atrocious that I would be failing in my duty if I did not pass a custodial sentence. No sentence I pass will compensate for the loss of that little girl."

Oliver Saxby QC, prosecuting, said Carla Didcock, an Outreach support worker, told Gregory not to leave her children unsupervised while she they took a bath during a home visit.

She was let down in the worst possible way by the person she should be able to rely onVictim impact statement from Theresa Andrews, Robyn's grandmother

She left shortly after midday and received a text from Gregory at about the time she was seen in a panic out of her home at 2pm, the jury heard.

Mr Saxby said Gregory had a "clear track record of careless and negligent parenting" and said she had ignored advice on how to bathe her child.

Mr Saxby added that "to forgot your baby was in the bath over a period of five or 10 minutes clearly showed gross negligence".

He also slammed Gregory's decision to not give evidence and said it left the case "crying out for an explanation of what happened".

A victim impact statement from Theresa Andrews, Robyn's grandmother, said the baby "lit up the room" and was "the brightest button".

Describing "every day as torture", the statement added: "We feel no pain, just numbness which will never go away. There are no words to describe how we feel. She was let down in the worst possible way by the person she should be able to rely on."

A Oxfordshire County Council spokesman said: "The case is currently subject to a serious case review, which will be published in due course. We cannot comment further at this stage."